I have no agenda for today. I just woke up my birthday girls so we can eat at Mary Grace at the mall and then later meet their elementary bffs who will sleep over. I transferred to the smaller room next door. I just checked out some stores because this is an area of SM North Carolina that I seldom or have never been too because this mall is massive—one of the biggest in the world.

Despite its size, it’s still packed with people, like it’s Christmas rush or sales day. But no, it’s just an ordinary weekend and Manileños want to cool off. This is the kind of consumerism that foreign businesses want to capture. Fueled by OFW remittances, domestic consumption is alive and kicking.

SM North is huge that it can devote a large store just for Gashapons. These vendo machines for toys just line up streets of Akihabara in Tokyo or outside of supermarkets. I’ve never seen Gashapons this many in one spot anywhere else. Who buys these things? Well, apparently people make the trek here from all over just to get their hands on these trinkets. They’re not cheap ha. Almost PHP 200 per capsule = one combo meal at Jollibee or McDonald’s. In Singapore they’re much more expensive. The ones I saw in Don Donki are about SGD 10. The last time I was in Japan, it was about JPY 300 (about PHP 150 or less), mostly in Nipponbashi Denden Town.

When I was already on my own and my kids have met their friends, I went to book stores. I went to Booksale but I didn’t see books that I liked. Then went to Biblio and was tempted to buy more…

But I held back. I HAVE STACKS OF BOOKS on the shelf in my room that I still need to finish. 🤦🏻‍♀️ But how can I resist this??? 👇